Madness and Civilzation ( A History of Madness)

by Foucault, Michel -

  Ruse and new triumph of madness: the world that thought to measure and justify madness through psychol­ogy must justify itself before madness, since in its struggles and agonies it measures itself by the excess of works like those of Nietzsche, of Van Gogh, of Artaud. And nothing in itself, especially not what it can know of madness, as­sures the world that it is justified by such works of madness.

  NOTES

  CHAPTER I. "stultifera navis"

  1. Cf. J. Lebeuf, Histoire de la ville et de tout le diocese de Paris (Paris, 1754-58).

  2. Tristan et Iseut, Bossuat edition, pp. 219-22.

  3. Pierre de Lancre, Tableau de Vinconstance des mauvais anges (Paris, 1612).

  4. In this sense, the experience of madness exhibits a rigorous continuity with the experience of leprosy. The ritual of the leper's exclusion showed that he was, as a living man, the very presence of death.

  5. Erasmus, The Praise of Folly, § 9.

  6. Louise Labe, Debut de folie et d'amour (Lyons, 1566), p. 98.

  7. Sebastian Brant, Stultifera navis, Latin translation of 1497, fol. II.

  8. Saint-fivremond, Sir Politik would be, act V, scene ii.

  9. Cervantes, Don Quixote, Part II, Chap. i.

  10. T. Gazoni, L'Ospedale de fassi incurabili (Ferrara, 1586). Cf. Charles de Beys, HOspital des fous (1635).

  11. Mathurin Regnier, Satire XIV, vv. 7-10.

  CHAPTER II. the great confinement

  1. Edict of 1656, article IV. Later the Saint-Esprit and the Enfants-Trouves would be added, and the Savonnerie withdrawn.

  2. Ibid., article XII.

  3. La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt's report in the name of the Committee on Mendicity to the Constituent Assembly (Proces verbaux de I'Assemblee nationale. Vol. XXI).

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  4. From a spiritual point of view, poverty at the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century was experienced as an apocalyptic threat. "One of the most evi­dent signs that the coming of the Son of God and the end of time are at hand is the extreme of both spiritual and temporal poverty to which the world is reduced. These are evil days . . . afflictions have multiplied because of the multitude of transgressions, pain being the inseparable shadow of evil." (Jean-Pierre Camus, De la mendicite legitime des pauvres [Douai, 1634], pp. 3-4.)

  5. Musquinet de la Pagne, Bicetre reforme ou etablissement d'une maison de discipline (Paris, 1790), p. 22.

  6. Bossuet, elevations sur les mysteres, Sixth Week, Twelfth Elevation.

  7. "We seek that God should serve our mad appetites, and that He should be as though subject to ourselves." Calvin, forty-ninth Sermon on Deuteronomy, July 3, 1555.

  8. Regulations of the Hopital General, articles XII and XIII.

  9. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discours sur les sciences et les arts.

  10. John Howard, The State of the Prisons in England and Wales (London, 1784), p. 73.

  11. Sermon cited in Pierre Collet, Vie de saint Vincent de Paul (Paris, 1818).

  CHAPTER III. the insane

  1. Fran9ois Ravaisson, Les Archives de la Bastille (Paris, 1866-1904), Vol. XIII, pp. 161-62.

  2. Bibliotheque national, Fonds Clairambault, 986.

  3. It did happen, but very late, and doubtless under the influence of the practice which concerned madmen, that those afflicted with venereal disease were also exhibited. Pere Richard, in his Memoires, tells of the visit the Prince de Conde made to them with the Duke d'Enghien in order to "inspire him with a horror of vice." (Memoires du Pere Richard, manuscript in the Bibliotheque de la Ville de Paris, fol. 25.)

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  4. Ned Ward, in The London Spy (London, 1700), cites the figure of twopence.

  5. "Everyone used to be admitted to visit Bicetre, and in good weather you might see at least two thousand persons a day. After paying your money, you were led by a guide into the section for the insane." (Memoires du Pere Richard, loc. cit., fol. 61). The visit included an Irish priest "who slept on straw," a ship's captain whom the sight of men made furious, "for it was the injustice of men that had driven him mad," a young man "who sang in a ravishing fashion" (ibid.).

  6. Mirabeau (H.), Observations d'un voyageur anglais (Paris, 1788), p.213, n. i.

  7. Jean-fitienne-Dominique Esquirol, "Memoire historique et statisdque sur la Maison Royale de Charenton," in Des maladies mentales (Paris, 1838), Vol. II, p. 212.

  8. Pascal, Pensees (Brunschvicg edition), no. 339.

  9. Bossuet, Panegyrique de saint Bernard, Preamble.

  10. Saint Vincent here alludes to the text of Saint Paul (I Cor., I, 23): "to the Jews, indeed, a stumbling-block and to the Gentiles foolishness." 11. Correspondance de saint Vincent de Paul, Coste edition (Paris, 1920-24), Vol. V, p. 146.

  CHAPTER IV. passion AND delirium

  1. Francois Boissier de Sauvages, Nosologie methodique (Lyons, 1772), Vol. VII, p. 12.

  2. F. Bayle and H. Grangeon, Relation de I'etat de quelques personnes pretendues possedees faite d'autorite au Parlement de Toulouse (Toulouse, 1682), pp. 26-27.

  3. Malebranche, Recherche de la verite, Book V, Chap. 3.

  4. Sauvages, op. cit.. Vol. VII, p. 291.

  5. Robert Whytt, Traite des maladies nerveuses (French trans., Paris, 1777), Vol. II, pp. 288-91.

  6. Charles-Gaspard de la Rive, "Sur un etablissement pour la guerison des alienes," Bibliotheque britannique. Vol. VIII, p. 304.

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  7. Encyclopedic, article on Mania.

  8. L'Ame materielle, ou nouveau systeme sur les purs principes des philosophes anciens et modernes qui soutiennent son immaterialite. Arsenal, manuscript no. 2239, p. 169.

  9. Paul Zacchias, Quaestiones medico-le gales (Avignon, 1660-61), Book II, Vol. II, question 4, p. 119.

  10. Sauvages, op. cit., Vol. VII, p. 15. 11. Ibid., p. 20.

  12. Ysbrand van Diemerbroek, Disputationes practicae, de morbis capitis, in Opera omnia anatomica et medica (Utrecht, 1685), Historia III, pp. 4-5.

  13. J.-D.-T. Bienville, De la nymphomanie (Amsterdam, 1771), pp.140-53.

  14. Robert James, Dictionnaire universel de medecine (French trans., Paris, 1746-48), Vol. Ill, p. 977.

  15. Ibid.

  16. Zacchias, op. cit.. Book I, Vol. II, question 4, p. 118.

  17. Archibald Pitcaime, quoted by Sauvages, op. cit., Vol VII, pp. 33 and 301.

  18. Encyclopedie, article on Madness.

  19. We should add Andromache herself, widow, and bride, and widow again, in her mourning garments and festive garb which ultimately mingle and say the same thing, and the luster of her royalty in the night of her slavery.

  20. Cf. for example annotations like the following, apropos of a madman confined for seventeen years at Saint-Lazare: "His health is fading greatly; it is to be hoped that he will soon die." (Bibliotheque national, Fonds dairambault, 986, fol. 113)

  CHAPTER V. aspects OF madness

  1. Johann Weyer, De praestigiis daemoimm (1563).

  2. Ibid.

  3. Apologie pour Monsieur Duncan.

  4. Ibid.

  5. Hippolyte-Jules la Mesnardiere, Traite de la melancolie (LaFleche, 1635), p. l0.

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  6. Apologie pour Monsieur Duncan.

  7. Thomas Willis, Opera omnia (Lyons, 1681), Vol. II, p. 242.

  8. "A soldier became melancholic because of his parents' rejection of a girl he desperately loved. He was distracted, complained of a severe headache, and of a continual heaviness in that part. He grew visibly thinner; his face turned pale and he became so weak that he voided his excrement without noticing it. ... There was no delirium, although the patient gave no positive answers and seemed to be en­tirely absorbed. He never asked for either food or drink." (Gazette salutaire, March 17, 1763)

  9. Robert James, Dictionnaire universel de medecine (French trans., Paris, 1746-48), Vol. IV, p. 1215.

  10. Encyclopedic, article on Mania.

  11. William Cullen, Institutions de medecine pratique (French trans., 2 vols., Paris, 1785), Vol. II, p.
315.

  12. M. Flemyng, Nevropathia sive de morbis hypochondriacis et hystericis (Amsterdam, 1741), pp. i-ii.

  13. Thomas Sydenham, Medecine pratique (French trans., Paris,1784), pp.400-404.

  14. Ibid., pp. 395-96.

  15. Ibid., p. 394.

  16. Ibid., p. 394.

  17. Jean-Baptiste Pressavin, Nouveau traite des vapeurs (Lyons, 1770), pp.2-3.

  18. Robert Whytt, Traite des maladies nerveuses (French trans., Paris, 1777), Vol. I, pp. 23-24, 50-51.

  19. Ibid., pp. 47, 126—27, 166-67.

  20. Simon-Andre Tissot, Traite des nerfs et de lews maladies (Paris, 1778-80), Vol. I, Part 2, p. 302.

  21. Ibid., pp. 278-79, 302-3.

  22. Pressavin, op. cit., p. 65.

  23. Louis-Sebasrien Mercier, Tableau de Paris (Amsterdam, 1783), Vol. Ill, p. 199.

  CHAPTER VI. doctors AND patients

  1. Madame de Sevigne used it a great deal, finding it "good against sadness" (cf. letters of October 16 and 20, 1675).

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  2. Lange, Traite des vapeurs (Paris, 1689), p. 251.

  3. Consultation de la Closure, Arsenal, manuscript no. 4528, fol. 119.

  4. Joseph Raulin, Traite des affections vaporeuses du sexe (Paris, 1758), p. 339.

  5. Jean-Baptiste Pressavin, Nouveau Traite des vapeurs (Lyons, 1770), Foreword, not paginated.

  6. A. Rostaing, Reflexions sur les affections vaporeuses (Paris, 1778), p-75.

  7. Jean-Etienne-Dominique Esquirol, Des maladies mentales (Paris, 1838), Vol. II, p. 225.

  8. Thomas Sydenham, "Dissertation sur Faffection hysterique," Medecine pratique (French trans., Paris, 1784), p.425.

  9. William Cullen, Institutions de medecine pratique (French trans., Paris, 1785), Vol. II, p. 317.

  10. There is still some question whether the inventor of the rotatory machine was Maupertuis, Darwin, or the Dane Katzenstein.

  11. Encyclopedie, article on Music.

  12. Alexander Crichton, On Mental Diseases, cited in filias Regnault, Du degre de competence des medecins (Paris, 1828), pp.187-88.

  13. Cullen, op. cit., p. 307.

  14. Fran9ois Leuret, Fragments psychologiques sur la folie (Paris,1834), pp.308-21.

  15. Cited by Robert Whytt, Traite des maladies nerveuses (French trans., Paris, 1777), Vol. I, p. 296.

  16. Thomas Willis, Opera omnia (Lyons, 1681), Vol. II, p. 261.

  17. M. Hulshorff, Discours sur les penchants, read at the Academy of Berlin. Cited in the Gazette salutaire, August 17,1769.

  18. lbid., loc. cit.

  19. Encyclopedic, article on Melancholy.

  20. Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Preambule de L'Arcadie. Oeuvres (Paris, 1818), Vol. VII, pp. 11-14.

  21. Simon-Andre Tissot, Avis aux gens de lettres sur leur sante (Lausanne, 1767), pp. 90-94.

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  22. Philippe Pinel, Traite medico-philosophique sur l'alienation mentale (Paris, 1801), pp. 238-39.

  CHAPTER VII. the great fear

  1. Denis Diderot, Le Neveu de Rameau. Oeuvres (Pleiade edi­tion), p. 435.

  2. Louis-Sebastien Mercier, Tableau de Paris (Amsterdam, 1783), Vol. I, pp. 233-34.

  3. Ibid., Vol. VIII, p. i.

  4. Ibid., p. 2.

  5. Musquinet de la Pagne, Bicetre reforme ou etablissement d'une maison de discipline (Paris, 1790), p. 16.

  6. "I knew, as did everyone, that Bicetre was both hospital and prison; bat I did not know that the hospital had been built to nurture sickness, the prison to nurture crime." (Mirabeaa [H.], Observations d'un voyageur anglais [Paris, 1788], p. 6.)

  7. Mirabeaa, op. cit., p. 14.

  8. Simon-Andre Tissot, Traite des nerfs et de lews maladies (Paris, 1778-80), Vol. I, pp. iii-iv.

  9. In nineteenth-century evolutionism, madness is indeed a return, but along a chronological path; it is not the absolute collapse of time. It is a question of time turned back, not of repetition in the strict sense. Psychoanalysis, which has tried to confront madness and unreason again, has found itself faced with this problem of time; fixation, death-wish, collective unconscious, archetype define more or less happily this heterogeneity of two temporal structures: that which is proper to the experience of Unreason and to the knowledge it envelops; that which is proper to the knowledge of madness, and to the science it authorizes.

  10. Johann Christoph Spurzheim, Observations sur la folie (Paris, 1818).

  11. J. C. N. Moehsen, Geschichte der Wissenschaften in der Mark Brandenburg (Berlin and Leipzig, 1781).

  12. Edme-Pierre Beauchesne, De l'influence des affections de l'ame dans les maladies nerveuses des femmes (Paris, 1783), p. 31.

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  13. Ibid.,p.33.

  14. Ibid., pp. 37-38.

  15. "Causes physiques et morales des maux des nerfs," Gazette salutaire, October 6, 1768 (anonymous article).

  CHAPTER VIII. the new division

  1. Mirabeau (H.), Des lettres de cachet et des prisons d'etat, Chap. 11. Oeuvres (Merilhou edition). Vol. I, p. 264.

  2. Mirabeau (V.), L'Ami des hommes (Paris, 1758), Vol. II, pp.414ff.

  3. Mirabeau, Des lettres de cachet, p. 264.

  4. Jean-Pierre Brissot de Warville, Theorie des his criminelles (Paris, 1781), Vol. I, p. 79.

  5. Encyclopedie, article on Hospital.

  6. Abbe de Recalde, Traite sur les abus qui subsistent dans les hopitaux du royaume (Paris, 1786), pp. ii, iii.

  7. Mirabeau, L'Ami des hommes, Vol. I, p. 2 2.

  8. Turgot, "filoge de Goumay," Oeuvres (Schelle edition), Vol. I, p. 607.

  9. Turgot, article on Foundation in the Encyclopedie.

  10. Turgot, "Lettre a Trudaine sur le Limousin," Oeuvres (Schelle edition). Vol. II, pp. 478-95.

  CHAPTER IX. the birth OF THE asylum

  1. Charles-Gaspard de la Rive, letter to the editors of the Bibliotheque britannique concerning a new establishment for the cure of the insane. This text appeared in the Bibliotheque britannique, then in a separate brochure. De la Rive's visit to the Retreat dates from 1798.

  2. Scipion Pinel, Traite complet du regime sanitaire des alienes (Paris, 1836), p. 56.

  3. Samuel Tuke, Description of the Retreat, an Institution near York for Insane Persons of the Society of Friends (York, 1813), p.50.

  4. Ibid., p. 23.

  5. Ibid., p. 121.

  6. Ibid., p. 141.

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  7. Ibid., p. 156.

  8. De la Rive, loc. cit., p. 30.

  9. Philippe Pinel, Traite medico-philosophique sur Falienation mentale (Paris, 1801), p. 265.

  10. I bid., p. 141.

  11. Ibid., pip. 29-30.

  12. Scipion Pinel, op. cit., p. 63.

  13. Cited in Rene Semelaigne, 'Alienistes et philanthropes (Paris, 1912), Appendix, p. 502.

  14. Philippe Pinel, op. cit., p. 256.

  15. Ibid., pp. 207-8.

  16. Ibid., p. 205.

  17. Cited in Tuke, op. cit., pp. 89-90.

  18. Philippe Pinel, op. cit., pp. 292-93.

  19. John Haslam, Observations on Insanity with Practical Remarks on This Disease (London, 1798), cited by Philippe Pinel, op. cit., pp. 253-54.

  20. These structures still persist in non-psychoanalytic psychiatry, and in many aspects of psychoanalysis itself.

  Conclusion

  1. Cent vingt joumees de Sodome, quoted by Maurice Blanchot, Lautreamont et Sade (Paris, 1949), p. 235.

  2. Ibid., loc. cit., p. 225.

  3. Infamy must be able to go as far as "to dismember nature and dislocate the universe." Cent vingt journees de Sodome (Paris, 1935), Vol. II, p. 369.

  4. This cohesion imposed on the socii consists, in effect, of not admitting among themselves the validity of the right of death, which they can exercise over others, but of recognizing among themselves an absolute right of free disposal; each must be able to belong to the other.

  5. Cf. the episode of the volcano at the end of Juliette (Pauvert edition, Paris, 1954), Vol. VI, pp. 31-33.


  6. "One would have said that Nature, weary of her own works, was ready to mingle all the elements together in order to force them into new forms." Ibid., p. 270.

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  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Michel Foucault was born in Poitiers, France, in 1926. He lectured in many universities throughout the world and served as director at the Institut Francais in Hamburg, and the Institut de Philosophic at the Faculte des Lettres in the University of Clermont-Ferrand. He wrote frequently for French newspapers and reviews, and held a chair at France's most prestigious institution, the College de France.

  In addition to Madness and Civilization, his works available in Vintage are The Order of Things, The Birth of the Clinic, Discipline and Punish, and The History of Sexuality.

  Michel Foucault died in June 1984.

  Books by Michel Foucault

  "The brilliance of his style, his irony, and his ease of paradox endear Foucault's writing to sophisticated readers."

  —Washington Post Book World

  THE ORDER OF THINGS

  AN ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE HUMAN SCIENCES eng/ russ

  With vast erudition, Foucault cuts across disciplines and reaches back into the seventeenth century to trace the great rift that separates classical systems of knowledge from their modem counterparts.

  "An extraordinary range of information and imagination, and its theses ought to be taken note of and learned from." —Neva Republic

  Philosophy/Hiscory/0-679-75335-4

  THE BIRTH OF THE CLINIC / russ

  AN ARCHAEOLOGY OF MEDICAL PERCEPTION

  In The Birth of the Clinic, Foucault shows how our definition of pure science is shaped by social and cultural attitudes, and he sheds new light on the origins of our current notions of health and sickness, life and death.